Ofsted

I've spent this weekend doing absolutely nothing work related! I need some time to recover as this week we have had our Ofsted inspection...

All my plans for trying hard to keep a work-life balance had all been spoiled by lunchtime on our first day back. We gathered in the staffroom to hear the news that Ofsted had called. They were due to come in on Thursday.

Now, I know that this a short notice inspection is good because there's no stressful period before. However, it is good to make sure you're on top of your game. So I have had little sleep and carried out lots of work this week.

The inspectors were quite friendly and were very fair, taking things on face value. They spoke to the children and did little classroom observation (guess which lucky teacher didn't even get watched!). They spoke to the children and looked at displays. The vast majority of the time was spent with the headteacher. I was a little worried about the SMT meeting (in my last Ofsted in 2001 I was 2 months into my career, so this would be a lot bigger) but even this was fine. The inspectors did ask for year 2 and 6 books to be left out (a sample from each ability range) so that they could be 'scrutinised'.

The feedback at the end was very pleasing!